THE extreme right and racist British National Party is concentrating its bid to get into Greater Manchester's town halls on Oldham and Tameside.

THE extreme right and racist British National Party is concentrating its bid to get into Greater Manchester's town halls on Oldham and Tameside. The party is standing five candidates in Oldham where they have secured 20 per cent of the vote in a general election and a further five in Tameside. In Oldham they are standing in Medlock Vale, Royton North, Royton South, Shaw and St James. In Tameside BNP candidates are contesting Droylsden East, Droyldsen West, Longdale, Newton and Waterloo. Elsewhere in Greater Manchester they are standing in Healy ward in Rochdale. The party are standing two candidates in Manchester - Harpurhey and Fallowfield wards and one in the Manor ward of Stockport. The geographical pattern of the BNP's 2006 local election effort indicates they are following their traditional strategy of standing in 'white flight' areas - largely white wards next too, or near to, areas with significant Asian minority populations where whites more susceptible to the racist backwardness fear being 'swamped'. In their pre-election propaganda the BNP have been claiming the May vote will be a "referendum on Islam". At their national press conference held on 14 April - Good Friday - they continued the emphasis on religion with their leader Nick Griffin stressing that Britain was a "fundamentally Christian" country. Their election manifesto targets Asian or Islamic communities insisting, for example, that halal food should be banned from school canteens, that Christian assemblies should always be held in schools and It says that what is calls "foreign" pupils should be taken out of classes where their poor English drags down "native British" children. They also call for councils to make sure that ethnic minorities do not have a large share of licenced trades including taxis and mini-cabs, off-licences and take-aways - a coded call for restrictions on Asians becoming self-employed in business areas increasingly being abandoned by white workers. The anti-fascist Searchlight magazine warns that the BNP would only need an extra five per cent of the vote in London, West Yorkshire and East Lancashire to achieve a breakthrough at the local elections. Mohammed Azam, National Assembly Against Racism Chair said: "Oldham - where I used to be a councillor - was the BNP's top target area until recently. The BNP were comprehensively defeated because of the anti-racist campaign that united communities against the BNP, exposed the BNP lies and record turnouts prevented the BNP from gaining council seats